GRAMBLING, LA. (KTVE/KARD)– Tyra Muhammad started her college career in 1993. At 19, she got married and started a family. Soon after, she got sick and couldn’t attend as many classes.
“We moved to New Orleans, there I went to nursing school,” Muhammad said. “I was in the CNA program, certified nursing assistant.”
After a couple moves, she had her second child. Her husband went back to school and she decided to put her family first.
“Every time I thought of coming back, I kind of put it off, because I wanted to make sure my family was taken care of,” Muhammad said. “I’m a mother of 5, so I wanted to take care of my husband at that time, my children.”
After she and her husband divorced, she decided it was time to finish what she started all those years ago. At 44, she returned to Grambling State University to complete her bachelor’s degree.
“So I’ve been back,” Muhammad said. “Every semester I have either been on the President’s list or the Dean’s list, so that was an accomplishment for me.”
Muhammad said she even had a chance to attend school with two of her children.
“And I actually talked to them, I said ‘are you going to be uncomfortable with me on campus with you?’ and they were like, ‘no’, so they were really excited, we did a lot of things here together, so a lot of people know the Muhammad family,” Muhammad said.
Now at 46, she has one daughter who graduated from Grambling back in May, and this week, she and her son will graduate together.
“I’m proud of myself because I was able to maintain an ‘A’ average throughout the time that I’ve been back and that in itself is a huge accomplishment for me,” Muhammad said. “I like that as an example for my children.”
Muhammad said the best thing she did was not let time get in her way.
She said if there’s one message she wants everyone to take from her story, it’s that it’s never too late to invest in yourself and go back to school.
“Don’t stop.,” Muhammad said. “Don’t let anything get in their way, now even time, because like I said, I’m 46 and I came back to school at the age of 44 and I’m graduating in a few days.”
This isn’t the end of her college career. Muhammad said the next step for her is grad school. She plans on attending Grambling State with her daughter in the Spring.